La Salle left little doubt Monday night why it is favored to win the Class AAA Flyers Cup championship. The top-seeded and defending champion Explorers scored three goals in each of the first two periods and rolled to a 6-1 win over Perkiomen Valley at Hatfield Ice.
La Salle will face Holy Ghost Prep or Father Judge net Thursday in a semifinal
Dean Carvalho and Grant Lagreca each scored twice for the Explorers (21-3). Patrick Brace, and Ben Falicki also scored goals.
But while La Salle was clearly the dominant team on the ice, the title of Most Outstanding Player for the evening belonged to Perkiomen Valley goaltender Peter Neveil. The sophomore registered 50 saves in the course of an evening that saw the Explorers outshoot the Vikings 66-10.
“The kid was unbelievable,” said La Salle coach Wally Muehlbronner. “we were all wondering, ‘Who is this guy?’
“He made some great saves and did a nice job controlling rebounds.
Lagreca got a look at Neveil from close range.
“He played really good,” the junior said. “We got frustrated at some points because we just wanted to score but he played a heck of a game and kept it close.”
Thanks in large part to Neveil’s efforts it was a 1-0 game in the closing minutes of the first period. Dean Carvalho’s goal at the 3:58 mark gave La Salle the lead but Neveil was impregnable after that until Carvalo and Patrick Brace scored goals 18 seconds apart to put the Explorers up 3-0 with 1:24 left in the opening session. By period’s end, La Salle outshot the eighth-seeded Vikings (11-8-1) 22-5.
Mason McCabe scored Perkiomen Valley’s only goal 3:01 into the second session but La Salle continued to dominate play; by period’s end the shot differential was 40-6.
Lagreca spoke of the importance of he and his teammates maintaining their focus.
“You don’t want to get into bad habits,” he said. “We just want to keep working hard and playing as a team and that will continue to get us success.”
Muehlbronner gave the evening mixed reviews.
“In the end, we got the job done,” he said. “I wasn’t thoroughly pleased with our performance. There are a lot of things we’ve been working on that we kind of got away from a little bit. We’ve got to get back to just playing a hard, simple game.”
• La Salle is seeking it 13th Flyers Cup championship, the most of any school in tournament history.
Perkiomen Valley 0 1 0—1
La Salle 3 3 0—6
First: Dean Carvalho (L) from Julian Tarsi and Alistair St. Hilaire, 3:58; Carvalho (L) from Logan Dicus, 15:36; Patrick Brace (L) from Charlie Kennedy and Ryan Wiley, 15:54
Second Mason McCabe (PV) from Travis Moscariello, 3:01; Grant Lagreca (L) from James Carpenter, 3:32; Ben Falicki (L) from Lagreca, 12:00; Lagreca (L) unassisted, 16:25
Shots: Perkiomen Valley 10, La Salle 56; Saves: Peter Neveil (PV) 50 Jake Rossi (L) 9
Hockey Happenings 